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So me and the kids arrived at Goose Pond late Sunday night. We dragged our feet getting here by driving through the Adirondacks. It added an hour or two to the drive, but was certainly worth it. The drive was much more interesting than the 401, and the views were spectacular. When you finally come down out of the mountains to cross Lake George into Vermont, it is just incredibly beautiful. If I have a choice in the future, I’ll definitely take the long route.

We were met here by Mom, Grannie, Miriam, and her dog Maggie. We spent Monday submerged in the lake, coming out only to eat. All of us were more or less shriveled prunes by the end of it. Jacob started the day begging for a life jacket, but after he was given a $10 kickboard (everything is free here now that the currency has collapsed), and spent the better part of 4 hours kicking on it, he relaxed quite a bit. Follow that up with Sophie jumping into the water after her nap and diving in head first, and Jacob was shamed into the full swim. By the time he went to bed, he was telling everyone who would listen (again) that “now I can swim…I can swim”. And it’s true…head under the water, arms and legs flipping around…he goes at least 10 feet before standing up abruptly, coughing and spurting a bit, and then looking around frantically to locate his audience.

Today we ambitiously climbed up Moose mountain. Maggie the dog led the way, with Jacob in tow. Miriam was behind them, while Mom, Sophie and I held up the rear guard. The hike ballooned to 3 hours, but the views were worth it. Towards the end…fearless, running Jacob sat down “for a rest”. He soon got up and walked about another 100 meters “for another rest”. Mir at that point picked him up and graciously carried him the remaining distance to the car.

The hike pretty much wiped us out, so we spent the rest of the afternoon in the lake. Jacob followed up his swimming exploits of yesterday by learning to doggie paddle in 5 foot spurts…but with his head nicely above the water. He also jumped off of Elephant Rock all by himself, with me standing about 5 feet away…clearly too far to catch him. All were impressed.

This evening Miriam left, which was sad. It’s been a hard spell for her and we wished she could stay longer, but I think she had already been at Goose Pond for about 6 weeks. Next year we’ll try to coordinate better. The upside is that the kids now have separate rooms, so there is some small chance of sleeping in to say…6:30. I’m celebrating the opportunity by hanging out in West Lebanon and internetsing my little head off. But I ought to watch it.

So far the only down side to the trip has been the fishing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about the process. I would like to eat some fish however. I’m sure I’m using the wrong rigs and bait, but it’s not going well. I keep catching these tiny little sunfish again and again. Jer and maybe Aaron will appreciate the irony of this…as we spent the better part of our childhoods cooking up schemes to land these very same chaps (hot dog and safety pin tied to a stick, massive quantities of artificial sweetener to induce cancer…). Here I am, all growed up, and I can’t *not* catch them. Such is life.

Posted by mikedaum on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 1:45 am.

3 Responses to “Goose Pond 2007”

Sadly I fear that the sunfish were always that easy to catch providing you were allowed to use hooks. Watching the parents use pliers to “de-barb” our hooks is something that I’m sure will take years of therapy to work out.

Mike- I love the description of the hike- and Jer-you may be happy to know that at the boat launch at the public beach the Goose Pond association has recommendations to use pliers on the hooks BEFORE you sport fish to bend the barbs in! That’s the first improvement in the world I’ve read about in a few years!

Left by Mom on
August 9th, 2007

Just returned from Neurosurgery, in Boston, and Audrey showed me your blog.
Hope you and your family had a wonderful vacation.